1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for promoting contact lens care compliance.
2. Description of the Related Art
The contact lens market in the United States is a multi-billion dollar market. Recent data indicates that nearly 36 million Americans, almost 13% of the US population, wear contact lenses. There are numerous manufacturers of contact lenses and many different channels of distribution, including eye care practitioners (e.g. ophthalmologists and optometrists), national and regional optical chains, mass merchants, and mail order and online stores. The contact lenses include any of the following basic types: soft, rigid gas permeable and hard. Soft contact lenses are made of a highly flexible material such as a plastic hydrogel polymer, hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) that contains water or silicone or hydrophilic hydrogels. Rigid gas permeable contact lenses, frequently referred to as RGP contact lenses, are composed of a firm plastic material and do not contain water. RGP lenses permit oxygen to pass directly through the lens to the eye, thus these lenses are gas permeable. In contrast, hard contact lenses are made of a hard plastic material, such as polymethyl methylacrylate (PMMA), which does not allow oxygen to pass through the lens to the eye.
In most countries, contact lenses are classified as medical devices, and are thus normally only dispensed with a valid prescription from a qualified eyecare practitioner. A valid prescription typically includes user's name, eye practitioner's name, contact lens brand name and material, lens measurements such as power, diameter and base curve, directions for safe use such as wearing schedule, whether lenses are for daily or extended wear, the number of refills, whether lens material substitutions are allowed and an expiration date. Generally, the quality of human vision worsens with age, or due to reasons independent of aging or eye diseases. Some of the changes in eyes are reduction in pupil size and the loss of accommodation or focusing capability, or presbyopia. As such, prescriptions typically have an expiration date, and thus should be updated periodically. Each lens manufacturer has a replacement schedule of a contact lens, that is, how long the lenses can be safely worn before discarding. The replacement schedule depends on the patient, manufacturer or the type of lens chosen.
For example, RGPs last several years, while soft contact lenses come in a wider variety of replacement schedules: daily disposable—1 day, disposable (extended wear)—1 week to 1 month, disposable (daily wear)—2 weeks, frequent replacement (also called “planned replacement”), 1 month to several months, conventional 1-year, depending on brand. Generally, hard contact lenses are available for different wear schedules, such as daily wear, and extended wear or overnight wear. Also, with planned-replacement lenses, an eye care practitioner works out a replacement schedule tailored to each user's needs. For example, for users who produce a higher level of protein in their eyes or do not take as good care of their lenses, it might be healthier to replace the lenses more frequently. Therefore, the onus to keep track of the wearable life of the lenses falls on the user. As such, if a user does not record the date of first use, or subsequent usage, as time passes it can become difficult to recall how long a particular pair of contact lenses has been worn.
Despite recommendations by eye care practitioners to replace lenses as specified in the prescriptions, most users continue to use these lens well past the expiration date or replacement date, whether unwittingly or otherwise. Such practices present a serious safety concern with contact lenses. Extended wear of contact lenses, rigid or soft, beyond the replacement schedule or wear schedule, increases the risk of corneal ulcers, infection-caused eruptions on the cornea that can lead to blindness. Symptoms include vision changes, eye redness, eye discomfort or pain, and excessive tearing. Another sight-threatening concern is the infection Acanthamoeba keratitis, caused by improper lens care. This difficult-to-treat parasitic infection's symptoms are similar to those of corneal ulcers. Several solutions for tracking the wearable life of a contact lens have been presented in the prior art, however these solutions place the onus of tracking the day-to-day wear of the lenses on the user, and are prone to error.
It is thus one of the objects of this invention to mitigate or obviate at least one of the aforementioned disadvantages.